Symantec Backup Exec 2012 does not pick up media assigned to media set

[ali_hassan]

Hello Everyone,

I am still very new to BE and after working with Netbackup for years I have been given the challenge to manage Symantec BE now...

Ok here is what is goin on, I have a file data job which takes about 14 Lto5 tapes to complete (yes we have loads of data!!) and what seems to be happening is that at first I had assigned all the 15 tapes to a Media Set and started the backup and it failed... then I erased on of those 14 tapes and moved it to scratch media and then started the backup and this time it picked up that one tape and started the backup...but again when the tape was full it was looking for another "scratch media" and it stopped and only when I erased the next tape the backup continued...

Do we have any option to over come this limitation? So that the desired backup job takes media assigned to a "Media Set" and does not always look for scratch media?

Thanks

A

[VJware]

Firstly, do not assign tapes to a media set prior to the backup job.

Secondly, set the media protection level to "partial" and "overwrite recyclable media before scratch media" under the global options.

And in the backup job, set the backup to append to media, else overwrite if no appendable media available.

Have a look @ these KBs as well -

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO98895

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH5459

[ali_hassan]

Hi VJ,

Thanks for your reply! :)

When you say "Firstly, do not assign tapes to a media set prior to the backup job"

> Why do you say that? isnt it helpful if we assign tapes to its designated media sets and just let BE to do the rest? 

i.e .. If I have an exchange job configured and a second file server job configured  and lets say the exchange job takes 2 tapes and the file sever job takes about 3 tapes... So i load 5 tapes in my library and then assign 2 tapes to the exchange media set and 3 to the file server media set... and when the scheduled job runs for exchange it should only pick up tapes from the assigned media set and NOT the file server set... isnt it useful if we follow this pratice?

Secondly, set the media protection level to "partial" and "overwrite recyclable media before scratch media" under the global options.

> The media protection level is set to partial in my new oraganisation but the second option which is selected is "Over-write scratch media before overwriting recyclable media contained in the targeted media set"

So i guess I would have to change that?

-A

[pkh]

When you associate a tape with a media set, it immediately take on the OPP and AP that is set in the media set and will become write protected so you will not be able to use it straightaway. After BE used a scratch tape, the tape will be placed in the media set targeted by the job and would be protected If you do not change the setting then BE will always use scratch tapes before using recyclable tapes

[ali_hassan]

@Pkh

Ok, I kinda get it now why I had been told by VJ not to place media in the media set before the job runs as explained by you... it took me a while to get this logic becase coming from netbackup where we can assign tapes to a media pool and just leave it here it doesnt work that way I reckon...

Also since we obv rotate our tapes as per the schedule like the rest of the world... what happens when the time comes when the old tapes are going to be re-used.... Since these tapes are from a previous week they are already in the desired media set which was set by BE after it had completed the job .. so when the current week job runs it seems that it does not work as it is looking for a scracth media and does not over-write the old tapes...  I belive the reason is becasue we have the global settings configured in-correctly? (Over-write scratch media before overwriting recyclable media contained in the targeted media set")

-A

[pkh · Accepted solution]

Yes. If you change the seeing to use recyclable media then it will use the overwritable tapes in the targeted media set, but these tapes must be overwritable BEFORE the start of your jobs. You have to set the OPP correctly

[ali_hassan]

We seem to be getting somewhere and you mentioned a good point saying "these tapes must be overwritable BEFORE the start of your jobs"

Currenly I see them as "Infinite - Do Not Overwrite".. where do I go and change the OPP setting? i know this might be a trival question to ask but I am still trying the get my head around this application!!

[ali_hassan]

Ok I just figured it out... by going to  the properties of the Media Set....